New and emerging foods

Functional Foods • Foods that provide health benefits beyond basic

nutrition e.g. Regulating the functions of the body or slowing down the progress of some degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, some cancers, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

• Functional foods are classified into:1. Processed foods that have enhanced nutritional

properties e.g. Low-fat milks and fat-reduced cheese2. Food products with added ingredients to enhance

health benefits of food e.g. Folate added to breakfast cereals and omega-3 added to milk, bread and margarine.

Foods for digestive and bowel health

• Our digestive system enables us to absorb all the nutrients we need for good health, which includes supplying the body with energy, growth and repair of tissues and the body’s ability to fight off disease.

• Probiotics: live microbial food supplements which help to protect the bowel against cancer and other bowel disorders e.g. Jalna yoghurt

• Prebiotics: non-digestible, but stimulate the growth of colonic bacteria, which improve health e.g. Hi-maize- passes through to the large intestine and acts as dietary fibre. Products that contain hi-maize are : ‘Up & Go’ breakfast drink and ‘ wonder white muffins’. Another prebiotics ingredient is BARLEYmax which can help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and help with weight control.

Foods for the heart, brain and eyes • Omega-3 DHA: omega-3 is a essential fatty acid that the body

cannot make for itself. It can be found in – oily fish such as herring, salmon, tuna and sardines. It helps to maintain heart health, infant brain development, functioning of the eyes, beneficial for mental health and functioning of the joints.

• Plant sterols: improve health by inhibiting the absorption of cholesterol through the small intestine. They also help cholesterol pass straight through the body instead of being absorbed into the bloodstream.

• LDL cholesterol: sticks to the walls of the arteries of the heart• HDL cholesterol : picks up LDL cholesterol on the artery walls and

carries it back to the liver

Foods with fewer kilojoules for weight management

• Fat-reduced products: membrane technology to reduce the fat content of milk an milk products.

• Reduces kilojoule intake, cholesterol and saturated fat• Sugar-reduced products: low kilojoule sugar replacement

products• ‘Stevia’ : produced from a plant and the sweet flavour is

extracted from the leaves and is 250-300 times sweeter than sugar. It does not provide kilojoules.

• Sugar substitutes: aspartame which falls under the trade name of Nutrasweet

Foods to help prevent osteoporosis

• Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones which leads to loss of bone mass and the risk of multiple bone fractures.

• Calcium enriched milk: membrane technology, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis . It provides an excellent source of calcium and vitamin D to assist in absorption of the calcium.

Foods to address food intolerances

• A food intolerance is a chemical reaction to particular foods; it is not an immune response.

• Lactose intolerance: inability to digest lactose, the sugar in milk. The result is that the bacteria that live in the colon cause lactose to ferment and produce carbon dioxide which causes the bowel to retain water and leads to bloating and diarrhoea.

• Gluten intolerance: permanent intolerance to gluten found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. The villi in the small intestine becomes inflamed and damaged by gluten. Nutrients cant be absorbed into the intestine and pass through the large intestine and out in bowel motions.